Former President Bill Clinton announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York that Intel Corporation will bring its landmark teacher training program online to help more than 1.5 million teachers in 15 countries learn how to best integrate technology into their lesson plans to help students learn.

Noting that "quality teachers equal quality education," Intel Chairman Craig Barrett emphasized that this training – a new online offering of the Intel Teach Program – helps teachers create active learning environments to help students develop the skills they need to succeed in the global economy. Students taught by teachers trained through the traditional Intel Teach Program have used these skills for everything from developing an AIDS awareness program to finding new sources of potable water. The current market value of the commitment announced today is an estimated $300 million over the next 4 years.

Recognizing Intel's commitment to improving the quality of education worldwide, Clinton named Barrett to CGI's Education Advisory Committee. Barrett is the first private-sector partner to receive this honor.

"One of the best ways to help students develop the skills they need to succeed is to help their teachers teach them," Barrett said. "With the launch of the new online Intel Teach course, teachers can learn how to integrate technology into their classrooms on their own time, and at their own pace. This commitment reflects Intel's strong belief that teachers, much more than computers, are the real magic in the classroom."

The Intel Teach Program, the company's teacher professional development program, operates through active partnerships with national, regional and local governments. To fulfill the commitment Intel announced today, over the next 4 years the company will work with ministries of education in 15 countries. Along with the United States, these are Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Ireland, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Intel will work with these and other government agencies to ensure that the online Intel Teach offerings are localized and aligned with national educational standards.

Intel Teach is widely regarded as the most successful professional training program of its kind. Recent independent research showed that 81 percent of teachers trained through the Intel Teach Program reported that student projects showed more in-depth understanding than other, comparable work. As additional recognition of its effectiveness, many governments have linked the training to teacher awards, policy changes and compensation. In one country, for example, teachers receive a 15 percent salary increase after completing the Intel Teach Program.

The commitment announced today is part of Intel's global, $100 million-plus annual investment in improving education from local schools to global universities, which helps create knowledge and inspire innovators who can change the world. Over the past decade alone, Intel has invested more than $1 billion in cash and in-kind contributions to help teachers teach, students learn and universities innovate. To learn more about Intel's commitment to education, please visit www.intel.com/education.

This is a worthy project. I'm glad to see an ex-president and a top American company involved. It wil be interesting to see who else comes on board. I hope that the worst thing ever found out about me is that some young bimbo gave me a blowjob.

As apparently my previous posts have been deleted for being to political, even though they were more on topic than others.. here is a non political version of what I stated earlier.

I am really impressed with Intel in helping to take the initiative with this. I hope this proves more fruitful than other companies attempts to help aspects of humanity. If education can be modernized I feel Intel may have the skills to help.